Tokyo, Oct. 23 (Jiji Press)--The Yomiuri Giants said Friday that former star Hideki Matsui has become new manager of the Japanese professional baseball team under a three-year contract.

Matsui, 52, played for the Tokyo-based Giants in the Central League of the Nippon Professional Baseball Organization, or NPB, before joining the New York Yankees and other Major League Baseball teams in the United States.

"I want to get started right away so that a new golden age can begin for the Giants," he said at a press conference in Tokyo the same day.

Matsui also spoke about his mentor, Japanese baseball legend Shigeo Nagashima, a former Giants player and manager, who died in June last year at the age of 89. "To be honest, I wish Mr. Nagashima could have seen me here in my new role," Matsui said.

The new manager will wear No. 90, the jersey number Nagashima wore for six seasons from 1975, when he began his managerial career after retiring as a player the previous year. Matsui will be paid an estimated 200 million yen annually under the three-year contract.

Japanese baseball star Hideki Matsui, new manager of the Yomiuri Giants professional baseball team, poses at his inaugural press conference in Tokyo on Friday.
New Yomiuri Giants manager Hideki Matsui (right) holds a No. 90 jersey with Toshikazu Yamaguchi, owner of the Japanese professional baseball team, at a press conference in Tokyo on Friday.

[Copyright The Jiji Press, Ltd.]